Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 32 | Page 11

NEWS N4Engage releases Microsoft Teams Direct Routing to give customers phone call functionality a key player in the collaboration market, without the purchase of a phone system licence, basic functionality does not give its users telephony capabilities. With the launch of Microsoft Teams Direct Routing capability, N4Engage – an accredited Microsoft partner and reseller – now offers its customers the use of telephony capabilities by utilising its SIPLink trunking solution and infrastructure to connect with Microsoft Teams. N4Engage, Node4’s collaboration business unit, has announced the availability of its Microsoft Teams Direct Routing capability, giving customers the ability to add telephony services to Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams usage has grown by 894% over the last six months as the business landscape shifts to remote working and organisations increasingly rely on collaboration tools. While Microsoft Teams is The SIPLink platform is wholly owned and managed by N4Engage and hosted in Node4’s own data centres. It provides a flexible, reliable and feature-rich SIP platform that can be used with any SIP-compliant system – and now supports Microsoft Teams. SIPLink features, such as International Numbers, bespoke routing and on-net calling between systems, can now be utilised by Teams customers too. Richard Buxton, Director of N4Engage, said: “Adapting our SIPLink solution for Teams means our customers can make calls through Microsoft Teams, ensuring communication is quick and simple in a time when this is vital to businesses.” Manchester City Council allows contact centre agents to operate from anywhere 8 ×8, a leading integrated cloud communications platform provider, has announced that Manchester City Council has selected 8×8 Contact Centre to keep vital services running safely for its more than half a million residents throughout lockdown. Supporting one of the largest metropolitan districts in the UK, Manchester City Council commenced a detailed procurement process two years ago, to implement a new cloud-based communications solution in line with its wider cloud-based ICT strategy. Nearing the end of the process, the 8×8 Open Communications Platform had been selected due to its enhanced flexibility and ability to connect contact centre agents across voice, video and chat. However, in light of the COVID-19 outbreak and the UK government’s mandate to work from home, the council fast-tracked solution deployment in order to keep vital services running while ensuring the safety for both residents and staff. During the peak of the pandemic, it was essential the social care team was able to continue assisting the city’s most vulnerable residents around the clock, while keeping agents safe, as well as essential emergency control and financial assessment teams. Additionally, a COVID Hub was also established to answer residents’ queries relating to the Coronavirus. Working to tight timescales, 8×8 enabled 120 critical service agents from these teams to operate from anywhere, including home and other remote work settings, in a matter of weeks. By the end of August, this will have increased to 250 agents supported by the new system. www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO 11